Pick & Choose
by Thane'sSiha
Summary: Shepard awakes with a throbbing headache and a voice in her head. A voice that is far too familiar, the voice of her once enemy, Saren. Now, he's stuck with her, speaking to her through her mind and dreams, and together, they have to figure out how he got there and how to get rid of him.
1. Headaches and Mistakes

Her head felt like it'd been hit with a hammer over and over, and when her eyes opened, it just kept getting hit. This pain, this sensation, was locked in sync with her heartbeat. With every beat of her drum like heart, a ripple of pain would shoot through the back of her eyes.

It didn't help that there was so much noise. Yelling and gunfire, she had no moment to catch her breath. It felt like she hadn't breathed air into her lungs in years. Like she was being forced underwater for so long and just now, she was getting a breath, but she couldn't even savor it. This breath and the one after it, they were cut short. Short and stiff until she was basically hyperventilating, but she was breathing, and that was all that mattered.

"Get to the locker and grab your armor, Shepard!"

She glanced around for a source to the voice, but found none. Of course she'd wake up alone. Of course no one was here with her. That voice relaying orders to her was nothing more than that, a voice. A voice that left her alone in this hellhole until she could reach it, wherever the hell it was.

But there was this strange sensation she felt when slipping on her armor. It wasn't strange because the armor was heavier than the normal light armor she wore and it wasn't strange because the armor came with a pistol, but no thermal clip. It was strange because she didn't feel alone.

It wasn't one of those feelings where you felt like someone was watching you from the corner of the room. That horrifying feeling when your skin begins getting a goosebumps and you keep looking behind your back. That feeling was different. This feeling was one where you knew that someone was there and you weren't uncomfortable. Yet, in scanning the room once, twice, three times, it proved to her yet again that she was alone.

 _...you're not._

She nearly toppled over in pain from this sudden rush of a headache. Shepard placed her hand on the locker for support, her eyes glued shut so that the bright, fluorescent hospital like lights would worsen her headache.

Shaking off whatever this strange feeling was, she rushed towards the door. What she was hearing was nothing. It wasn't real. There was so much rushing into her head at one time, she wouldn't be surprised if it was just one of the many memories coming back to her at one time. It could not phase her, she could not let it phase her, it would cause too much of a distraction.

Alone, Jane fought through this seemingly never ending hell. Although, it was comforting. Somewhere deep inside herself she knew that she'd been dead once before. It was faint, but the memories of her death replayed in her head over and over, like someone was rewinding it. She knew this, but it did not phase her. Not yet at least.

Her adrenaline was pumping, her heart was basically beating in her ears. The mixture of using her sharpshooting and biotics, almost made her forget that she was once dead. Almost.

She opened the door to another area of the large building and slid into cover next to a man. Hoping, almost praying that he was friendly. If not, she'd just screwed herself. But thankfully, he was with her.

"Shepard!" He called out to her. Even with his yelling, it was a bit hard to hear him over the constant shooting of the mechs, "I thought you were still dead. It must be really bad if they've got you running around here."

Jane looked down at her hands. Noticing how faint orange lines ran over her fingers like a swiveling road. Constantly turning, never straight.

That was a dumb thing to say, IT spoke in her head again. She tried not to grimace in pain as it spoke to her. Whatever it was. The man in front of her was clearly already worried about her. She could not make him worry more.

"Was I?" She asked. That being the only thing she could ask. The memories of her death played over and over again in her mind, and yet she couldn't bring herself to believe it, for some reason.

"Yeah. You were out for like two years. We you first got here, I didn't know what you were. You were like--"

A sudden shot of gunfire close to his head cut his sentence off, which she was thankful for. The way he was describing her, the way he spoke about her body post death, made her feel disgusting. She was happy to be lulled away into a world of gunfire and biotics once more. That way, she wouldn't have to think of what she was now anymore. That way, she wouldn't have to think about the body of hers that was reconstructed, or the oddly familiar voice in her head. All she had to think about was shooting and not getting shot. It was simple. It was what she needed to take her mind away from the horrors that was herself. At least until she met her.

Her first impression of Miranda came from watching the woman put a bullet into a seemingly innocent man's head, then smiling at her. The smile seemed cheap, fake, and practiced, but in the heat of the moment, she was stunned. Words would not come from her mouth. Instead, her eyes glanced from Wilson's bleeding skull back to Miranda's smiling face, once, twice, three times she did this until Miranda spoke again.

"Wilson betrayed us, Shepard, he betrayed us all," was all she said, as if that were explanation enough.

 _I wouldn't have done it any other way._

She began to grit her teeth. This voice in her head, she was beginning to hate it. It was menacing and harmful. It frightened her, just because it was oh so rude yet so familiar at the same time. Who was it? Who was this menacing man in her head that was speaking to her? She knew it, the name was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't place it.

The shuttle ride was a bumpy one. One that was almost completely silent. She could hear the shuttles engine, it made up the white noise that she focused on. It felt better to focus on something, if she didn't, she felt as if he would slip through and speak to her again. And she knew that she could not bare to hear what he had to say.

"Shepard, we need to mentally evaluate you," Miranda spoke finally, breaking the silence. This nearly made her chuckle. How could she even begin to describe that there was a man speaking to her in her head.

Jacob spoke after her, "Really, Miranda, do we really have time for this?"

"Normally we would've ran these tests for weeks, a shuttle ride evaluation will have to do," She snapped back. The way the bickered with one another reminded Shepard of an old married couple in a way. She found herself smiling about this.

Miranda and Jacob asked her things. Basic questions that everyone knew that answers to. Questions that could've been answered with a simple search on the extranet, or even asking a friend. The questions they asked her we're simple. About Ashley's death on virmire and members of the Normandy. Her preference for guns and who she chose to be councilor. Basic things, she answered with almost no thought at all, the answers came to her naturally, because they were part of her.

Though, through all of this, one name that was mentioned stuck with her. Saren. The minute Jacob dropped the name, her headache came back full swing. It took a lot out of her to keep her straight face whilst it was happening. Shepard wanted to tell them, she did. These headaches and voices in her were not normal. She wanted to tell them that something was deathly wrong, but she didn't trust them. Not yet. They were Cerberus and they were both rather sketchy.

She kept this mentality up through the shuttle tide as it whispered to her. Her headache was barely registered when it whispered to her. It didn't feel like much of anything, but that didn't change the fact that she could hear every word it was saying to her. Every syllable, every note. It spoke to her, and she listened.

 _Does this hurt you less?_ He asked her, his voice just below a whisper, barely audible.

She began to nod, but stopped herself. Jacob and Miranda did not hear what see was hearing, if she began nodding randomly they would question her and she had no answers. So she spoke back in her mind.

yes. it hurts a bit less.

 _Good, good. I was beginning to fear that I'd never get a clear message through to you._

but, who are you?

 _Do you not remember me, Shepard?_

The way his voice seemed to hiss her name. It was then when she recognized him. This voice speaking inside her head was as far from friendly as it got. It was nothing good. The sudden realization of who it was made her heartbeat speed up to almost a mile a minute. She could feel it in her throat. Her breathing speed up as well, almost as if something was pressing down on her chest and she was gasping out for her very last breath.

It took a minute for Miranda and Jacob to notice that there was a problem with Shepard, and when they did, it felt as if it were already to late. Her bright green eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped over into her seat with Miranda and Jacob screaming at her to stay with them. But she couldn't stay with them. She had someone to see.

Her dream was a pleasant one. In the beginning at least. Tali, Liara, Garrus, Wrex, Kaidan, and Ashley were all sitting with her around a table. They all had a drink in their hands, they were laughing, smiling, cheering. It felt so good to be with all of them again, like her family was together once more, but she knew this was not real. No matter how bad she wished for it to be true, she knew that this was nothing more than a dream.

But she chose to ignore this fact, she chose to enjoy her friends once more before she would from this dream. A smile on her face and a drink in her hand as she listened to a story Garrus told about C-sec. On instinct, she took a sip of her drink. It tasted of nothing, reminding her once again, that this was not real. No matter how much she wished to pretend that she was once again on the Normandy with her loved ones, you can only pretend for so long.

Then, as quickly as they were there, they vanished into thin air. Leaving her at an empty table, with nothing, but their partially empty glasses to remember them by. She glanced at each glass one by one and remembered the person who held it. For her, it'd been a few days, but for her friends, it'd been two years, as Miranda had said. She remembered them, but did they remember her?

"I apologise for getting rid of them," a voice from the shadows spoke. The same voice that gave her headaches, the same voice that shot himself almost two years ago. Saren Arterius stood at the other end of the table, turning her once happy dream into that of a nightmare.

"Please God, wake me up," she whispered whilst staring up into the sky. Her hands trembled, but she tried not to show it by placing them beneath the table.

"Trust me when I say this is just as unpleasant for me as it is for you," whilst he spoke, he slid into one of the chairs. The exact one that Ashley was in. The one that would've been empty anyways, because Ashley was dead.

"Then leave," she barked, "Get out of my dream and stay out of my head."

"If I could would,"

"I don't read you,"

"I'm stuck here," he gestured around himself, "In your head. In your memories. In your mind."

"That's not possible. This is just a bad dream. This is not real."

"I'm afraid it is,"

She rested her face in her open palms, exhaling a large burst of air from her lungs that she hadn't even realized she was holding.

"Dear God, I've gone mad," she spoke, her voice quivering.

After this, Saren said nothing, he only exhaled a sigh as well. Leaning back another in his seat. His eyes glanced around the room before falling upon her again. She was anxious, waiting to wake up from this horrible nightmare so that she could go out and shoot something to take her mind off of this nonsense. That's all this was. Nonsense.

Her death had brought her so much trauma that she made a personification of her worst fear and placed it into her mind so that it may ridicule and mock her. That had to be it. There was no other explanation.

"Ask Miranda," he finally said.

"What?"

"Miranda was in charge of you during your-" he looked her up and down, "Rebuilding. She did something to bring me here."

"She did nothing," Shepard spat, "Because you are not real."

With those words, she was jolted awake. Yet again, her head was aching and her eyes burned from the bright hospital lights. She inhaled a large breath, thankful to feel the air hitting her lungs once more. The nightmare was over and she would forget about it as the day went on. She knew it.

"You sure did scare us, Shepard,"

Jane sat up and followed to voice around the medbay to a desk. A desk where a woman with grey hair sat, filing paperwork. This was not the medbay from the Normandy. It was much much bigger and spacious, with more beds and better supplies, but that grey haired lady, Dr. Chakwas was here. If she was here, it meant that she was back home on the Normandy, right?

"What happened?" She asked.

The doctor stood from her chair and stepped over to Shepard, placing a cool hand against her forehead, "You've got a bit of a fever. Likely from working yourself so hard after just waking up from such a long slumber."

"But, where are we, Doctor?" Jane looked around the room once more.

"In the medbay on the Normandy," she replied nonchalantly.

"That's not possible," memories of the Normandy exploding and burning flooded back to her. Memories of her watching it while drifting farther and farther away from it, while her lungs lost air and could not pull any more back into them. She remembered it so vividly, and yet..

"I suggest you go talk to Miranda, she'll have answers,"

 _Yes, talk to Miranda._

"I'll do that, doctor," she spoke, ignoring his voice as it whispered to her. If she acknowledged it, it would mean that she was making it real in a way. Therefore, she would ignore it until it went away.

"Oh, and be sure to say hello to Joker. He'll be happy to see you're awake," Chakwas called from behind her.

That named sparked a bit of light into her heart. Joker was here as well. He survived the blast from the Normandy, but that didn't answer where she was.

It was a ship, obviously, a large one at that. The structure of it was extremely familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time. She recognized it, but did not as well. It was a strange sensation.

 **"Shepard, Miranda is by the Galaxy map. To get there, take the elevator-"**

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, who the hell are you?" Yet again, she was shouting at disembodied voices.

 **"I am the ship's Enhanced Defense Intelligence, but I am called EDI for short,"**

"What are you?" Shepard found herself asking, knowing that it's responses didn't sound like a simple VI. It couldn't have been.

 **"I am an AI, Shepard,"**

 _AI's are illegal for a reason._ His voice grimaced, and for once she found herself agreeing with him.

The elevator chimed and her head shot to look at who was exiting. Miranda took quick paces out towards Shepard, almost running towards the woman. She felt thankful to see this woman. With all the voices talking to her at once, it felt good to see a person who was real.

"I was just coming down to check on you," she nearly panted, "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Just light-headed,"

 _Ask her what she did._

"If you feel as if you need to rest, please do Shepard. The Illusive Man was not happy to have postponed your meeting due to a common fever," Miranda sighed.

"Is that where we are? The Illusive Man's ship or something?"

 _Ask her, Shepard._

"No, we are on your ship. The SR-2 Normandy, built especially for you with the likeness of your original ship in it," Miranda's full lips curled into a bit of a smile, "Building it took almost as long as it did to build you."

"It's mine?" She questioned.

"You'll have to talk to the Illusive Man first in the CIC, there's a lot more to this than just us bringing you back to life and giving you a new ship. There's something we need you to do for us?"

Her hand fell onto her hip, "How do I know I can trust you?"

"We share a common interest, Shepard," Miranda turned in her heels and began to walk the other way, "Meet me at her office if you need anything else, if not, see the Illusive Man in the CIC."

 _You didn't ask her about what she did to you to make us like this, Shepard. Why?_

because you're not real.


	2. A Sense of Calm

The elevator ride up was a slow, long one. One where she was left alone with her thoughts, meaning that she was also left alone with Saren. He didn't say anything, not after she refused to ask Miranda, but she knew he was there. It was almost like she could feel him still, she could sense his presence and it wasn't pleasant. He felt just as menacing as he did the day he died.

The door to her cabin opened the moment she stepped in front of her and her breath was taken away. Two desks, a large bed, a couch, and a fish tank, if she didn't know any better, she'd think it were a small apartment not a cabin for a military official. The room smelled of lavender and vanilla and the lighting was relaxing, it was like home.

 _They really didn't spare any expenses_ , he whispered.

She wanted to agree, because she believed it to be true, but she stopped herself. Acknowledging him meant that he'd talk to him more, she didn't think she could handle the stress of listening him talk for more than a second. Not after what she'd been through this single day.

Her body felt hot, like she was literally on fire. The floor felt like it was shifting beneath her feet. It felt difficult to suck air into her lungs, a feeling that she was getting rather used to. Rest seemed as if it would come natural to her, but when she looked down at the bed, all she could think about was Saren.

Him and her, locked in that room together. He sat where her friends once were. He turned her once happy dream into a nightmare in just a split second. Her fear of seeing him again, made her reconsider the idea of sleeping it off, this sickness that she has. She couldn't bring herself to. No matter how bad she wanted to.

Instead, she sat at the foot of the bed. The minute her bottom hit the cushion of the bed, she felt her eyes begin to try and flutter close. She stood back up very quickly, making the room spin a bit, knowing that if she sat around any longer she'd fall asleep right on the spot. Sleep would mean seeing him.

Jane took to pacing around the room instead. The repetitive movement would give her something to focus on and keep her awake. She could not go to sleep. She could barely rest without feeling like Saren would eventually come to see her face to face.

She gazed at her empty fish tank, occupying her mind with the kinds of pets she could get. She even had a perfect spot for a hamster. This was how she occupied her time for one full hour, then her terminal beeped with a message from the Illusive Man. Never had she been so happy to hear something from him, because it meant that she no longer had to think for herself.

 _I do not like that man._

Saren had said, but she ignored him. She took the elevator down to the command deck of the ship of her ship. It felt so familiar, so home like, yet so wrong. She thought this way the entire walk to the CIC, a room she'd never been to before.

Inside the room was a table, and nothing but a table. It confused her to no avail, she looked around for answers to her question. Was there a message terminal in the table? As she thought that, the table slid down into the floor, leaving the room seemingly empty, yet again, she was glancing around for answers.

"Please step on the terminal, Shepard," EDI informed her and she did hesitantly, watching as the scenery changed and the Illusive Man appeared before her.

He took a long puff of his cigarette, then blew the smoke up into the air, making her happy that she could not smell it. The smell of cigarette smoke always made her grimace.

"Shepard, I'm glad you're feeling better," he finally said.

 _No thanks to you._

"Well, you somehow managed to get one of the best doctors on your ship,"

"Your ship," he corrected, "and I was hoping someone like Dr. Chakwas would make you feel more comfortable."

She almost scoffed when he said this, "I am far from comfortable. I'd like some answers."

"Ask away. We both have questions for each other,"

Her mind was racing, filled with a million and one questions. She had so much she wanted to ask, so much he needed to tell her. Time felt infinite, but short at the same time. It was unknown to her whether or not he'd be able to answer all of her questions or if he'd just lead her on with riddles and short responses, he seemed like that type of person.

 _Ask him about what he did to you._

shut up, leave me the hell alone. She retorted.

"What did you rebuild me for? How the hell did you rebuild me?" She questioned.

Another long puff of his cigarette, "Shepard, I threw the money at the scientist, they did all the work. Miranda, she was the one who spearheaded the project, ask her about it, but I doubt she'll be very willing to answer."

"You don't know everything that goes on in your projects?"

"One question at a time, Shepard. Now let me ask you, do you love humanity?"

 _Not very much_

"Of course I do!"

"Good good, now ask another question,"

"You must've spent a lot to bring me back, what did you do it for? You didn't answer that,"

"Humanity is at risk,"

"The Reapers?" She asked, her headache coming back full swing.

The pain made her feel like she was going to topple over, but she was not willing to show weakness in front of the Illusive Man. She was afraid of what would happen, afraid that he'd believe that more test would be needed, afraid he'd put her back in a lab. Why was she so afraid of the lab?

 _It wasn't a very pleasant experience,_ Saren spoke to her, she found it vaguely comforting, _I could feel your heart beating when you escaped_.

get out of my head.

"Something like that. Human colonies have gone missing just outside of the terminus. A colony just went missing about a few hours ago. I'd like you to go and look at the colony. Get information about, find out what you can,"

"How can I trust you?" She asked.

 _You cannot._

"And how can I trust you, Shepard?" He replied very calmly with another puff of his cigarette.

She looked down at the floor, looking at her feet. Then her hands. It was taking a lot for her to understand everything that was happening to her. Being dead and being brought back was such a hard transaction,and all the time she spent alive was even more harsh.

There was little time to just sit and think and with the time she did have, she was stuck with Saren. He was always with her, always speaking to her for some reason. Despite the fact that she knew he wasn't real, she knew that she had to acknowledge his existence when they were alone together.

"Alright," Jane responded blandly.

xXXx

She was stuck in another bumpy shuttle ride. One where her, Miranda, and Jacob kept looking at each other. Miranda was keeping a close eye on her, to make sure she wouldn't faint again, and Jacob seemed to be almost lost in his own world.

She wished she could trust Miranda enough to just tell her what was going on with her. If she could just tell Miranda that she'd gone mad and started hallucinating her former enemy, then maybe she could help, but at the same time, Miranda was with Cerberus. Of she gave someone like her control over her weakened body, who knows what would happen to her.

"We'll be reaching the landing dock soon, any orders?" Miranda asked.

"Watch out for survivors," she stated blandly.

"Shepard," Jacob began to protest, "There haven't been any survivors in any of the previous attacks."

"Watch. Out. For. Survivors," she growled back to him, putting a hard space between every single word.

 _It's a worthless act Shepard. You heard him._

shut up.

They hopped out of the shuttle, an assault rifle in hand. The weight of the gun, the feeling of the ground beneath her feet, the way her armor hugged her body, it all felt so natural it felt right. She felt at home when she was like this. She felt like she didn't need to think when she was like this.

She took off before she could even think, alerted by the sound of security mechs. Mechs meant guns, guns mean fighting, fighting mean that she didn't have to think about what was going on in her personal life. She just had to think about her targets that she had to shoot.

Her feet marched faster than her brain can think. Bullets spewing from her gun left and right. It was almost intoxicating, she never wanted to stop. But eventually she had to.

They finally encountered something that seemed to be non hostile. One of which have a voice that sounded for too familiar for comfort.

"Tali," she whispered, her eyes just barely grazing the suit of the woman before she lowered her gun.

The woman seemed to have matured even more. Her suit had grown slightly more advanced. The way her voice had more power behind it. She barely even seemed like that same girl who lost her mind over the ship's drive core. Tali was a woman now.

"Shepard," she responded, equally as surprised.

Her eyes draped over the woman multiple times, it was the same person, obviously, but she'd grown up so much. It only made her wonder what had happened to the others from the Normandy. Garrus, Liara, and even Wrex. Had they all changed like Tali had? Would they even care about her anymore.

 _Two years is long enough to be forgotten._

She grunted slightly from the headache, "What's going on around here, do you know?"

Tali looked back at the group of other quarians that she'd come with, almost as if she were asking for permission to tell her what they were doing. Tali didn't trust her anymore.

"We're looking for someone," she began, her voice robotic from the suit, "A friend, his name is Veetor. He was on this colony when it got attacked and we need to take him home."

"How do you know he didn't get taken up, like everyone else?" Miranda asked.

"Well, he was the one who programmed the mechs, he's here, somewhere,"

"We'll look for him too," Shepard assured, and Tali nodded.

"I'll keep in contact via radio," and then she was gone once again, off with her own squadron.

Shepard felt like she still had a million questions for Tali, none of which got answered in their short encounter. Tali, along with Joker and Dr. Chakwas, were the only things that felt familiar anymore and even though Joker and Chakwas were on the ship, they never fought with her. So outside of the ship, she was facing unfamiliarity.

She wanted to ask her how everyone else was doing, Kaidan, Wrex, Liara, and Garrus. She felt another strange sensation when she thought of Garrus, one where her heart felt like it was beating out of her chest and her mouth went dry. Nothing came of this though, she had too much on her plate already.

 _Really, for him of all people._

There was little time to think of the friends that she'd left behind when she died as the bullets were flying again. No more thinking, no more pain.

The enemies came and went too fast, leaving her alone with Miranda and Jacob. She wanted to fight some more, to kill more things, she wanted to not have to think anymore, but every mission required a bit of thinking.

Veetor had hacked a heavy mech and it was rampaging through the area. It'd killed some of Tali's squad, and Shepard could only grimace at the sight. Having someone die under your order was one of the most painful experiences, one that you could never leave behind. The memories of the death followed you, hanging on you like it was clinging to your back.

She shook the thought of Ashley and Jenkins out of her head, somehow, she was projecting herself and her experiences onto Tali. She couldn't do it. She had to stop doing that. Her experiences, Tali's experiences, they didn't matter. What mattered was that heavy mech that was marching around the area that led to Veetor. That's what required her attention.

Her feet carried her from one cover to the other. Her body felt so light, yet her head felt so heavy. It didn't bother her, she had a target, one that didn't go down easy.

"We can use overload on those shields!" Miranda called from the other side of the field, but Shepard didn't want to use overload, she wanted the fight to last as long as possible.

Bullets ripped through her cover, the heavy mech targeting her in particular. One of them hit her shoulder, but the pain barely registered with her, she didn't feel anything. She knew she'd been hit and it wasn't a scratch, but she didn't feel it, or she just didn't care.

The next went down with a large explosion that shoot the very ground beneath her feet. She held her arms out to keep stable as the last of the vibrations moved through the ground.

"Veetor's in there, move," she ordered. It felt like it'd been too long since she'd relayed an order to her squad, she'd almost forgotten that she had them.

They kicked the door down, finding a man that fit Veetor's general description sitting amongst a large group of screens.

 _He's a quarian, there aren't many of those in this specific are._

He didn't seem to notice them. He just continued to type away on his computer, mumbling to himself. Now that the light feeling she got while fighting had worn off, she began to grow annoyed. Her felt like it was going to burst open, and Saren made it no better. She just wanted to fight again.

"I don't think he can hear us, Shepard," Jacob piped up. Had she been quiet that long? Long enough for Jacob to make awkward conversation.

"He's probably traumatized," she said.

 _Shoot a few warning shots into the screen. That would wake him up._

She shook her head violently at the thought, gaining strange looks from Miranda and Jacob. They could not hear Saren so they did not understand her reaction to his horrible suggestions.

"Veetor," Shepard snapped her fingers next to his helmet, where he might be able to hear her, "I need to talk to you."

He continued typing along, mumbling and typing in this almost eternal loop.

 _Fire some shots, Shepard._

"Veetor!" She hollered. Ssye felt like she was losing her mind. There were too many voices, too many people talking to her at one time. Veetor and Saren and Miranda and Jacob, it was too much. She felt so much strain on her body.

Thankfully, her yelling somehow reached him, got him to calm down. He stopped typing, finally noticing the world around him and the people talking to him.

He stopped talking, Saren stopped talking. The typing stopped. It was quiet for the first time in what felt like forever, but it wasn't the other kind of quiet. The kind of quiet where she was afraid to hear Saren or the kind where she was lost in her own thought.

It was the kind where the world didn't feel as heavy. Where she could hear and feel her own breathing. This brief moment, almost twenty seconds. She felt alive in this twenty seconds. Similar to the way she felt when she fought, she felt calm.

He turned to face them for the first time. Despite the fact that he wore a mask, she could sense the disbelief on his face , "You're...human…"


End file.
